Washington Dec. 25th 1820 My dear friend, I was much disappointed in not receiving any letters from home yesterday, which is the day in which your letters arrive. I am willing to impute it to the failure of the past, and not to any  other course - believing if you were unable to write, that Samuel or  Mary would inform me of the situation of the family. You know  that I am always in the habit of viewing every uncertainty in the [the] most favorable point of view. My health remains good, and so is that of most of the members of Congress; yet there are some sick, which is the case every winter. When it is considered that most of the members are rather on the  down hill of life, and many of them rather infirm, it is not surprising  that some of them should, end their course at Washington, but it is more  so that the number should be so small. We have buried two of our mem- bers already, they had both been out of health for a long time, and came  here in that condition. This bring Christmas, congress do  not attend to business to day. Christmas is a great day here, where the in- habitants are mostly Roman Catholics - The stores are all shut, the churches  are filled with devotees, either true or feigned, and the streets with negroes  all in full [ ]. The weather has been very fickle, continually changing, from cold to moderate, & vice versa, - raining one day and freezing  hard the next, and so on - very little snow this month, & none at present. I infinitely prefer a Vermont winter, where the weather is steady, to such broken, muddy and unhealthy weather as prevails for three or four months at this place My love to Samuel & Mary, and accept the assurance  of the constant affection of your humble [Servant] Samuel C Crafts Mrs Eunice Crafts